January 8 – FIFA President Sepp Blatter in his speech at last night’s FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala addressed the importance of taking risks and accepting defeat gracefully, the racist issues that have dominated the news, and concluded with a reminder of the significance of the game globally.
Addressing the pitch walk off by Kevin-Prince Boateng and his Milan teammates he said: “If a player walks off the pitch because he has been racially abused, just as Kevin-Prince Boateng did, it is a strong and courageous signal, a way of saying, ‘This has gone this far, but it goes no further. That is praiseworthy.
“But it cannot be the solution in the long term. We have to find other sustainable solutions to tackle the problem at its roots. Otherwise, such stands will be made in isolation and lost in the heat of general controversy. Football must not separate people. Football must bring people together.”
Blatter went on to give a powerful reminder of the role football plays across the world and its capacity for communication and regeneration of human spirit.
“Our game is still played in places where life has come to a shuddering halt, suffocated by acts of war – in Syria, for example, whose national team won the West Asian Championship in December and where football is still being played, just as it was in Baghdad during the Iraq War, just as it was in Libya, and just as it was and is in Afghanistan,” said Blatter.
“Football is the last bridge when society has broken down, but it is also the first bridge when life begins to bloom again… Football is hope. Football is life.”
Contact the writer of this story at zib.l1734900173labto1734900173ofdlr1734900173owedi1734900173sni@o1734900173fni1734900173